Posts Tagged ‘decision support’

Crossing the Real Chasm for Buyers

May 21st, 2013

A couple of leading questions that I think will frame the discussion. What is the difference between:

1. Pain versus Problem?

2. Solutioning versus Decisioning?

3. Solution Adoption versus Buyer Adoption?

4. Solution Delivery versus Problem Solving?

5. Peer-Influenced versus Vendor-Driven Decision Support?

If you can’t diagnose the REAL underlying problem that is the causation of the symptomatic pain that buyers are experiencing – think strategic, cross-functional business problem that the SVP has to really make a serious, involved decision to solve versus the departmental complaints that give you an indication something is broken – then it is really hard to facilitate the complex decisions they need to make to solve the problem.

If you are not solving the problem, you are really looking for pain to match to your solution’s value proposition. May solve the real underlying problem, or not. Solutioning is not problem solving. Buyers are looking at adoption as “what do I need to solve a painful problem?” while vendors look at adoption as “What do I need to do to get a buyer to buy my technology solution?” The disconnect creates a huge risk for the buyer which grows exponentially with the number of depts/people involved with decision, complexity of the technology, complexity of the implementation, cost of the solution, and the length of the project. Add in the need to get people trained and using the system fully to see the value and you wonder why buyers are hesitant to move forward, fear the unknown, and feel like most projects fail to meet their expectations? Continue reading “Crossing the Real Chasm for Buyers” »

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The Evolution to Buyer-Enabled

February 6th, 2012

As we have progressed to defining a “new” category of engagement in sales and marketing that we coined “Buyer-Enabled” versus your traditional sales and marketing models, we have continued to develop better visual tools to help companies figure out where they are in their development. We decided that “social” was not helping people figure out why what we are seeing in the market is different that thinking about social media as a channel. Behavioral is too tactical and too esoteric. Continue reading “The Evolution to Buyer-Enabled” »

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Posted in Archive 2012

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Defining Buyer-Enabled Marketing

February 6th, 2012
We are Seeing a Disconnect Between The Way Buyer’s Approach the Market And The Solution-Centric Marketing That Vendors Provide
  • Buyers are active and participating within on social websites, forums etc., but the social market is noisy, saturated, mature,  and cluttered with vendors so buyers are faced with many options to choose from which makes the decision making process more difficult
  • Vendors are using technical jargon (educated buyer) and needs to shift towards more “pain” and “generic” social search orientation for a less educated, but more strategic buyer.

How do you develop customer relationships, influence requirements, and drive sales if buyers are doing research and making buying decisions before your organization becomes aware and engaged? 

  • Understanding how buyers solve business problems, research and weigh solution options, reconciling  various organizational  motivations, along with assisting the organization to solidify business, functional, & technical requirements
  • Identify buyer motivations, triggers for purchase, and research/selection/ buying process, and behavioral market segmentation
  • Focus marketing engagement around buyer’s needs, not with solution awareness messaging
  • Leverage social networks &  online communities to reach buyers in their communities of interest
  • Provide decision support, not solution advocacy
  • Assist them in building targeted strategic business cases based upon their particular needs before then addressing
    tactical functionality and feature requirements.

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Posted in Archive 2012

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